The Commission
on Judicial Performance yesterday censured former Merced Superior Court Judge
Marc A. Garcia and barred him from receiving assignments or appointments from
any court.

The censure and
bar is the maximum penalty the court can impose against someone who no longer
holds judicial office.

The ruling stems
from an investigation into $250,000 he received from his former law firm. The
Associated Press and the Merced Sun-Star Friday reported that Garcia had
resigned pursuant to a stipulation with the commission, but did not note the
censure and bar.

The CJP did not
issue a statement on the matter, and did not respond to press inquiries, prior
to Garcia resigning.

The
censure-and-bar order does not prevent Garcia from practicing law, and he told
the local newspaper that he will remain in Merced and practice agricultural
law. He could, however, be subjected to disciplinary proceedings by the State
Bar, as have other former judges who were censured after leaving the bench.

Garcia, who was
appointed to the bench by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007, was due the
money under an agreement to leave Merced Defense Associates for the bench. But
he admitted that he never disclosed it to the Fair Political Practices
Commission, as required by law, or to lawyers with cases in his court who had a
right to know about it when opposing Garcia’s ex-partners.

The commission
charged that when Garcia was appointed to the bench, his firm—which represented
indigent criminal defendants and allegedly delinquent juveniles under contract
to the county—agreed to pay him $250,000 at the rate of $4,518 monthly, unless
the county terminated the firm’s indigent services contract before the amount
was fully paid.

Garcia continued
to receive payments through August 2012. The payments apparently came to light
after a judicial secretary opened an envelope addressed to the judge, who then
instructed her not to open his mail in the future, the CJP said.

The commission
noted that the judge’s FPPC filings were sworn to under penalty of perjury. It
said the failures to disclose, and to recuse himself from the firm’s cases,
violated the Code of Judicial Ethics, as did Garcia’s agreeing to receive
payments after taking office, for services he would not be performing and his
concealment of that fact.